Wednesday, November 30, 2016

Back in the day, the mid-1980’s
Home-meal Replacement / Solutions (RMS) was the talk of the retail foodservice
industry. Many research companies and retailers dismissed RMS as it morphed
from a sideshow to the main stage (Top of Mind) for consumer’s seeking
convenience. Foodservice Solutions®
Grocerant Guru® Steven Johnson did not dismiss RMS rather he define the evolution
as the Grocerant niche.

In fact Steven Johnson first
warned restaurant industry in 1991 about the undercurrents change within the
consumer mind-set. Then in 1996 Johnson penned an Op-Ed article titled:Call Them Grocerants in Augustin both FoodService Director and Nation’s Restaurant News which highlighted
undercurrents of food industry evolving consumer migration patterns.

What many legacy grocers failed to
understand was the opportunity for fresh prepared food as a day-part meal
opportunity / solution. Most grocery
retailers do not believe they are in the meals business. More important most
grocery retailers did not want to be in the fresh prepared meal business then
or now. They wanted to be in ‘fill
customers pantry’ business. The fill the pantry business has long since
vanished as have many legacy grocery chains.

Grocery retailer’s mind-set in the
1980’s was Home Meal Replacement specifically in store fresh prepared food cost
too much to produce, threw their labor out of line, created scheduling
problems, and had too much wasted food. That same mind-set holds true today for
many legacy grocery retailers today. Walk around most grocery stores today
and you can see that they continue to try and make fresh prepared food into a CPG product.

Maybe that’s why most legacy grocery
stores continue to struggle driving profitability with grocerant Ready-2-Eat
and Heat-N-Eat fresh prepared food. Just look how Kroger stumbled with their
new concept Main and Vine. Winn Dixie on the
other hand
opened a new customer focus fresh food focused new concept store to find
incremental success and increased customer relevance.

Legacy grocery retailers simply did not
want to deal with fresh prepared food back in the day nor do they today. I
guess that is why they cut corners, mass produced product that they call fresh,
packaged it like it was a CPG brand, and let it sit on display or under heat
lamps way to long. In short they blew it then and most are making the same
mistake today.

The pantry business
is rapidly diminishing according to Foodservice Solutions® Grocerant Guru®.
While category managers can quickly tell grocery retailers what is selling
inside their stores, how to price it, and where to position it. Category
managers have no idea where the customers went. Nor can they explain how
start-up mail-order meal-kits companies in three years have annual sale of $1
billion a year. That is pantry disruptive growth, and a concern for legacy
retailers.

In an era of consumer transparency
category management tactics have fallen out of favor with consumers. Or as our Grocerant Guru® put’s it “the
consumer is not stupid, they have figured out what retailers are doing and
dislike any company trying to trick / fool customers into buying a product in
the era of transparence legacy retailers utilizing such tactics will face
customer rebellion.” Fresh prepared Ready-2-Eat and Heat-N-Eat food has the
‘hallo’ of ‘better for you’ from the consumer perspective and continues gaining
momentum.

Consumers are dynamic not static, the
Grocerant niche continues to grow around the world and our Grocerant Guru® has
been leading the drive for top line sales and bottom line profits within the
grocerant niche since 1991.

Food manufactures are searching for
new, fresh food opportunity and that is something Foodservice Solutions®
continues to excel at. Foodservice Solutions® Grocerant Guru® as regular
readers of this blog know has repeatedly stated that “consumers never take step
back in food quality or freshness”. The food retail industry today is no longer
at a crossroad. The consumer has moved. It’s simply a question within the
legacy grocery retailers if they want to move forward with consumer or not.

Back in the day it used to be
restaurant chefs were the industry tastemakers and retail eventually playing
copy-cat caught up with the trends. Today many tastemakers come from Grocerant
niche retailers. Yes, the times they are a changing.

Driven by increased demand and customer
migration from cook from scratch to Ready-2-Eat and Heat-N-Eat fresh prepared
food everyone from Soccer Mom’s to Senior Citizens are putting pressure on
retailers for fresh prepared food. All retailers are in a fierce battle to
garner a larger share of stomach and the battle for customers is taking place
within the grocerant nice Ready-2-Eat and Heat-N-Eat fresh prepared food space.

Grocery stores are now playing catch-up
with the fast expanding Convenience store sector that is focusing on Grocerant
niche Ready-2-Eat and Heat-N-Eat fresh prepared food. Companies the ilk of
Wawa, Sheetz, and Rutter’s Farm Stores all are finding success with fresh
prepared food. Overall convenience stores are doing a better job within the
grocerant niche than legacy grocery stores according to our Grocerant Guru®.

Seemingly trapped in footprint malaise
traditional grocery retailers are closing stores, capitulating market share.
Success does leave clues and legacy food retailers must adopt a new view, and
new business model, the Grocerant model. Foodservice Solutions® can help any
retailer looking to drive top line sales and bottom line profits within the Grocerant
sector.

www.FoodserviceSolutions.us specializes in
outsourced business development. We can help you identify, quantify and qualify
additional food retail segment opportunities for your product or your brand.
Foodservice Solutions of Tacoma WA is the global leader in the Grocerant niche
since 1991 Contact: Steve@FoodserviceSolutions.us

Tuesday, November 29, 2016

Howard
Schultz Chairman and CEO of Starbucks Coffee is without doubt the retail food
industries best food merchant according to Foodservice Solutions®
Grocerant Guru® Steven Johnson. So just what makes Schultz the industry
leader? That’s easy to answer according
to Johnson, he understands customer relevance and refuses to allow his brand to
get stuck in a brand Silo Mentality from the beginning
Schultz understood our Omni-Channel retail world.

Back in
the day (1997,) “Starbucks quietly stocked a new gift item on its shelves. It
was a small, plush bear the color of honey, dressed as a barista with a tiny
green apron. This very first Bearista bear created a sensation among Starbucks
fans, with more than 100 different editions of the bears following in the
nearly 20 years since.” Top line sales
and bottom line profits define success Omni-Channel retail has help drive that
time and time again for Starbucks and Schultz understands what others fail to
grasp according to our Grocerant Guru®.

The
Bearista bears have been dressed in everything from ski jackets to surf shorts
and comfy pajamas. They've celebrated holidays, like Lunar New Year and
Halloween, and destinations around the world from Paris to Hong Kong. Some
bears even masqueraded as other cuddly animals including bumblebees, bunnies,
chickens and ladybugs according to Starbucks.

While
the Starbucks Bearista holiday bears have been in hibernation in the U.S. since
2009 this year the holiday classic bear is back by popular demand for a limited
time in participating U.S. Starbucks stores.

The new
2016 limited-edition Bearista Collection includes five new lovable bears. Three
are baristas—one with a classic green Starbucks apron, one with a red holiday
apron, and a retro 1970s bear dressed in Starbucks original brown apron and
logo with corduroy flare pants. There are also two Bearista bears with fuzzy
hats—one with a red comfy sweater and the other with a cozy green sweater. Each
has a “Starbucks 2016” commemorative mark on its paw you can pick one up or
order it at www.Starbuck.com .

You can
order Coffee, Tea, Mug’s, Tee Shirts, Coffee Makers, Gift Cards you name
it. Starbuck’s has made their brand
relevant by integrating the present with the past. Starbucks understands that differentiation
does not mean different, rather it means familiar but with a twist. It’s that understanding that continues to win
the hearts and minds of consumers making Schultz Foodservice Solutions® Food
Merchant of 2016.

Foodservice Solutions® specializes in
outsourced business development. We can help you identify, quantify and qualify
additional food retail segment opportunities or a new menu product segment, and
brand or menu integration strategy. Foodservice Solutions® of Tacoma WA is the global leader in the Grocerant niche
visit: Linkedin.com/in/grocerant, Facebook.com/Steven Johnson, or twitter.com/grocerant

Monday, November 28, 2016

Is there any company in the world that
is positioning itself better to be the undisputed leader of the Grocerant niche
more so than Amazon? Foodservice Solutions®Grocerant Guru® says
no. Today there is no other company that encompasses the spirit of the
evolving consumer with value added service and messaging within the Grocerant
niche than Amazon.

Recently Tyson Foods created a meal kit
service through Amazon Fresh its grocery delivery unit that
once again is creating an incremental pantry busting platform. That new
platform has to be driving legacy grocery retailers to work overtime just to
lose more ground, market-share, and customer relevance according to our
own Grocerant Guru®.

Recently one executive of a legacy
grocery retailer informed out team that they can’t believe how a “book selling
Technology Company” can be a better foodservice retailer than them; but they
are.” While Amazon may still sell a lot of books; they have become a
grocery behemoth according to our Grocerant Guru® who went on to say they may
have read Foodservice Solutions® Grocerant Guru’s business plan but they
implementing it better than anyone would have ever expected.

Blue Apron, Plated, Chef’d, Home Chef, Munchery, HelloFresh, and many others all offer the ability
to order recipes and ingredients to your door weekly. Even The New York Times, entered into a partnership
with Chef’d, is
launching its own branded meal kit service however all will have to “Up their
Game” according to our Grocerant Guru®.

Amazon’s Meal Kits elevate relevance
with millennial shoppers edifying a growing relationship that includes
expanding discovery on Amazon, easy meal planning, no food waste, and how to
prepare a meal. That may seem like basic. But in truth it is the
platform that will drive sales of grocery items and everything else for years
to come. Amazon is just beginning to do to groceries what they did to the
book business. Change it forever and that my friend’s is Pantry
Busting.

For international corporate
presentations, educational forums, or keynotes contact: Steve@FoodserviceSolutions.us the Grocerant
Guru® at Tacoma, WA based Foodservice Solutions®. His extensive
experience as a multi-unit restaurant operator, consultant, brand / product
positioning expert and public speaking will leave success clues for all.
Visit: www.FoodserviceSolutions.us for more
information.

Sunday, November 27, 2016

In the United
States Millennials are attracted to large urban cities mostly seeking jobs, thus
creating higher demand for housing, and a ‘new’ lifestyle. The same thing is taking place around the
world in Thailand the growth of a rising urban middle-class is driving demand
for convenience specifically demand for packaged convenient food from Convenience
stores.

Demand
for Ready-2-Eat and Heat-N-Eat fresh prepared food is growing continuously in
Thailand on the back of changing lifestyles in the kingdom. As an ever greater
share of the population lives in the condominiums of Bangkok's sprawling suburbs,
as rural areas turn into industrial clusters, as traffic jams worsen and more
family members work outside, demand for more convenient packaged food options
is rising. Here are some numbers from Euromonitor International:

1.The retail value of
ready-to-eat meals is forecast to grow this year by 10% year-on-year to
THB7.4bn (US$210.5m).

2.The success of
ready-to-eat in Thailand is closely linked to the success of convenience
stores, of which there are by now close to 30,000, or a ratio of about one
store for every 5,500 people.

Pichaya
Poonlarp, an assistant professor at Chiang Mai
University's
faculty of agro-industry, sounding a lot like Foodserivce Solutions® Grocerant Guru®
Steven Johnson stated "There's no
time for cooking, so pre-cooked products, frozen meals and sterilised product
are in the convenience stores all over the areas in Thailand," …As each
menu is either in frozen or in sterilised form, consumers can buy and ask the
store staff to warm them using the microwave."

Poonlarp
continued naming some of the top selling items in Thialand including “stir-fried
chicken with mint leaves over rice, fried rice, wonton soup, stir-fried garlic
and pepper pork over rice, stir-fried rice noodle and curry over rice as the
most popular ready-to-eat meals sold in Thailand's convenience stores.”

Poonlarp
also noted “US-style fast foods such as hamburgers and pizzas are popular among
children and teenagers, whereas the 15-50 age bracket displays more fondness of
Japanese-style ready-to-eat meals, such as sushi and noodle soups.”

Tunyarut
JinKarn, head of the department of packaging and materials technology at
Bangkok's Kasetsart University's faculty of agro-industry, argues the strength
of Thailand's convenience store channel is a grave threat to the fast food
sector, from hamburger outlets to traditional street foods.
"Ready-to-eat prices are acceptable, so that ready-to-eat competes with
fast food head-on on price," JinKarn explains. "But unlike the fast
food sector, ready-to-eat companies like CPF are constantly launching new
ready-to-eat meals on the back of robust R&D efforts, and promote them
through TV, Internet and leaflets."

Well
it would appear that Grocerant niche Ready-2-Eat and Heat-N-Eat fresh prepared
food continues to drive retail foodservice growth globally. The threat to the fast food sector and
the restaurant sector over all can be validated by declining year over year
customer count numbers that the restaurant sector in the United States
continues to post. Those numbers
negative or flat numbers can be reversed, replaced, or revitalized with
integration of Foodservice Solutions® Grocerant Guru’s Five P’s of
Grocerant Marketing.

For
international corporate presentations, educational forums, or keynotes contact:
Steve@FoodserviceSolutions.us the Grocerant Guru® at Tacoma, WA based
Foodservice Solutions®. His extensive
experience as a multi-unit restaurant operator, consultant, brand / product
positioning expert and public speaking will leave success clues for all. Visit:
www.FoodserviceSolutions.us for more
information

Saturday, November 26, 2016

Foodservice Solutions® Grocerant Guru®
stated “Traditional restaurant brand building practices are no longer effective
they aren't just broken, they simply no longer work. They are Kaput, Dying,
Replaced, they are Yesterday. The
customer has moved. Have you? Has your
brand?

The retail food consumer has moved, competition has
increased, and Multi-channel retail has been replaced with Omni-channel
retail. Simply put, the playing field has
changed, and if you're still playing on old turf with yesterday's rules, you
are in trouble and you’re company is in big trouble.

If you are sitting back waiting for the economy to
rebound, food prices to drop or customers to come rushing back in the door. It just might be too late. Foodservice Solutions®
Grocerant Guru® Steven Johnson has been following the consumer since 1991 and
outlining the new universal success clues,
actions, and language of the consumer.

The rise of the grocerant
niche has not been sudden, not dynamic, rather a steady evolution highlighted
and accelerated by technology and economic turmoil. The consumers has new priorities, protocols,
and engaging new technologies, is more informed embracing new avenues of fresh
prepared food distribution. Gone are the
days when having a “restaurant quality” dinner means going to a restaurant
exclusively.

Gone are the days of Top
Down Menu Development. In the new evolving world of Ready-2-Eat and Heat-N-Eat
fresh prepared food it is about the consumer. It’s about creating a platform
for consumer convenient meal participation, differentiation
and individualization. It is no longer about you promoting, you selling,
you pushing or your LTO. It is about the consumer, the community,
inclusion.

Success comes in this new
era of Omni-channel fresh prepared food by empowering franchisee to test, to
try, to fail. Success will come when you
empower all customer-facing teams in daily cross-functional engagement, from
C-level to line level. Success will come when you invite, include, empower
customer input.

The customer has
moved. Restaurant brands today must move
with the consumer or risk losing consumers to new avenues of fresh food
distribution. The gone are the days of brand protectionism practices at all
cost. Today brand protectionism is a brand that is consumer interactive and
participatory.

Visit www.FoodserviceSolutions.us If you are interested in learning how the
5P’s of Food Marketing can edify your retail food brand while creating a
platform for consumer convenient meal participation, differentiation
and individualization.

Foodservice Solutions® specializes in
outsourced business development. We can help you identify, quantify and qualify
additional food retail segment opportunities. Foodservice Solutions of
Tacoma WA is the global leader in
the Grocerant niche visit Facebook.com/Steven Johnson,
Linkedin.com/in/grocerant or twitter.com/grocerant

Friday, November 25, 2016

The restaurant industry is not known as an industry
that adopts to change very well. If fact
it is the one retail sector that cultivates customer relationships with comfort
food of the past. There is one problem
with that and that is comfort food of the past reflects more yesterday than
today.

Convenience stores were made to change and evolve. Here is one example and there are
plenty more according to Foodservice Solutions® Grocerant Guru® Steven Johnson. QuikTrip Corporation most of you may not know or don’t remember,
but QuikTrip began as a grocery store that opened and operated for many years
before they got even got into gasoline becoming one of the fastest growing and
successful convenience stores today.

Now here is the
conundrum for operators of restaurants.
Increasingly companies the ilk of Wawa, Kwik Trip Inc.,
QuikTrip Corp., Sheetz, and Maverik have all been
opening retail locations without gasoline. Mike Thornbrugh, spokesperson for
QuikTrip, which operates more than 700 c-stores in 11 states and opened its
first store sans fuel in downtown Atlanta this past June stated “The store in
Atlanta was the right time and location, and a good opportunity for us to see
if it will be successful and to learn from it.”

Thornbrugh continued
“To open a store without gasoline has been part of our strategic plan for some
time, but it had to be the right timing and the right location… As part of the
retail space of Viewpoint Condominiums, the 3,500-square-foot QuikTrip store in
downtown Atlanta offers a range of grocery items, as well as fresh foods
through the QT Kitchens made-to-order concept.

The new non-fuel
QTKitchens store is focused even more on the fresh food side of the business
than other locations. Non-fuel locations for QuickTrip are placing a lot of
emphasis on fresh food will give us a chance to bring a lot of different
products in; to see if we can perfect it and learn from it,” according to
Thornbrugh.

Another convenience
chain opening stores Non-fuel retail outlets focused on Ready-2-Eat and
Heat-N-Eat fresh food is Sheetz, based in Altoona, Pa.. Sheetz has for the past couple of years
described its C-stores as “convenience restaurant” concept. Louie Sheetz, the
past EVP of Marketing for the retailers and now member of the board of directors,
explained how non-fuel retail is the direction the retailer is headed in for
the future.

Sheetz already has a
full-scale convenience restaurant operating in Altoona, and opened two Sheetz
Cafés in Morgantown and State College, Pa. Another location without gasoline
was slated to open this fall in Indiana, Pa.

Tarah
Arnold, public relations manager for Sheetz, recently stated that the non-fuel
retail outlets “have been incredibly successful due to the location of the two
cafes in two college towns and the loyalty of our Sheetz customers for our food
offering.”

For a C-store to be
successful without gasoline, a store has to offer high-quality, well-differentiated
Ready-2-Eat and Heat-N-Eat fresh prepared food according to Foodservice
Solutions® team. Sheetz leverages the strength of the standalone c-store and
competes very well with quick-service restaurants utilizing the FIVE P’s of Grocerant
Marketing.
Both Sheetz and Wawa have such a strong
c-store offer, that each has locations that would be more viable if they
removed the fuel allocating more space for customer parking.

The
undercurrents of change are engulfing the restaurant sector. The conundrum for restaurant operators is
that C-stores are not a start-up competitive threat. They are evolving retailers that on average
have vastly higher volume sales per-location, higher profits, more cash on
hand, and established loyal customers.
Restaurateurs simply don’t understand, accept, or believe that there is
a new retail platform / environment that they must adjust too. How Grocerant niche Mix and Match bundling
and Foodservice Solutions® can help.

Foodservice Solutions® specializes in
outsourced business development. We can help you identify, quantify and qualify
additional food retail segment opportunities or a new menu product segment, and
brand or menu integration strategy. Foodservice Solutions® of Tacoma WA is the global leader in the Grocerant niche
visit: Linkedin.com/in/grocerant, Facebook.com/Steven Johnson, or twitter.com/grocerant

Thursday, November 24, 2016

In the United States
we have celebrated Thanksgiving since 1621. That first celebration lasted three
days and was attended by 90 Native Americans and 53 Pilgrims according to
Plymouth Colony archives. Thanksgiving
today is not much different as the tradition reflects a mix of influences,
including economic, ethnic, generational, health, pop culture and social
structure, according to new research findings from The NPD Group.

Today's Thanksgiving
meals are celebrated by most Americans and they celebrate the meal at home,
whether it be theirs or someone else’s. Approximately 48 percent of Americans
eat their Thanksgiving meals at home, while 44 percent eat at someone else’s
house. Only 3 percent will eat their meal at a full-service restaurant, NPD
found. Here are some additional fun Thanksgiving Facts:

1.The meal most
likely to be eaten at a restaurant on Thanksgiving is breakfast (19 percent).

2. 29 percent of holiday celebrations include an
item sourced Ready-2-Eat from a foodservice outlet,

3. 55 percent include
items that were “completely homemade” from a restaurant or foodservice outlet.

The Thanksgiving
table may look a bit updated from 1621 while there is still Turkey on most
tables Americans are also beginning to seek out and identify with a food culture
that reflects their friends and family. According to NPD that menu may not
necessarily stem from their ethnicity.

Today’s consumers are
more comfortable integrating various culture influences into their daily lives,
including meals. Thanksgiving meals will integrate cultures into traditional
Thanksgiving staples, like a Szechuan green bean casserole, or mashed potatoes
made with Manchego cheese.

Holidays much like
the United States itself have become a melting-pot for friends and family. Do
you have a family meal, moment, or memory around food you would like to share
with us? Please do. The more families and friends each of us intertwine
with and adopting traditions and customs the happier and more understanding we
all become. Happy Thanksgiving

For
international corporate presentations, educational forums, or keynotes contact:
Steve@FoodserviceSolutions.us the Grocerant Guru® at Tacoma, WA based
Foodservice Solutions®. His extensive
experience as a multi-unit restaurant operator, consultant, brand / product
positioning expert and public speaking will leave success clues for all. Visit:
www.FoodserviceSolutions.us for more
information

Wednesday, November 23, 2016

One day until Thanksgiving here
in the United States and retailers that are offering grocerant niche
Ready-2-Eat and Heat-N-Eat solutions are winning not only the hearts and minds
of families across the country but they are seeing record in sales and profits
roll in. Grocerant niche fresh prepared
food removes the complexity from meal prep making the holiday a happy meal
according to Foodservice Solutions® team.

Bojangles’ is offering help once again to
customers looking for that complexity free meal by offering their Seasoned
Fried Turkey. The Seasoned Fried Turkey
is a unique holiday offering and many consumers make it a part of their
Thanksgiving meal every season.

The Bojangles Seasoned Fried
Turkey is a just Heat-N-Eat product that is prepared using Bojangles’
proprietary seasoning. The turkey is oven baked then fried, vacuum sealed and
frozen to seal in freshness and that one-of-a-kind Bojangles’ flavor that their
loyal customers love.

If you have not Pre-ordered your
turkey you had better call today.
Turkeys can be picked up as late as noon on Thanksgiving Day. Turkeys
are only available at participating locations while supplies last and price may
vary. Visitwww.bojangles.com/locatorto locate a Bojangles’
restaurant near you.

Interested in learning how www.FoodserviceSolutions.us can edify new ways to help
consumers take the complexity out of cooking from scratch? Edify your retail
food brand while creating a platform to succeed within the fastest growing
sector of retail foodservice the grocerant niche filled with Ready-2-Eat and
Heat-N-Eat fresh prepared food offered all year long? Contact: Steve@FoodserviceSolutions.us